Houston girl's body kept for six months in refrigerator drawer

By Dale Lezon and St. John Barned-Smith

Updated 1:44 pm, Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Shadow Melendez, 6, can only wonder about the 9-year-old neighbor girl whose body was found Monday.
Photo: Johnny Hanson

Shadow Melendez, 6, can only wonder about the 9-year-old neighbor...

Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle
Photo: Test

Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle

A neighbor walks by the residence where a girl believed to be 9 years old was found dead, wrapped in blankets in the kitchen of the home at the Happy Home apartment complex Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in Houston. The girl's body was discovered about 5:45 p.m. Monday evening when Houston firefighters were sent to make a welfare check at the apartment in the 10100 block of Club Creek, southeast of Beechnut and the West Sam Houston Parkway. Police said neighbors told investigators they had not seen the girl for months. Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in Houston.

Alex Mendoza, 19, walks past the Happy Home Apartment complex residence where A girl, believed to be about 9 years old, was found dead and wrapped in blankets Monday evening.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

Alex Mendoza, 19, walks past the Happy Home Apartment complex...

Lupe Perez peeks in the home where a child was found dead. (Johnny Hanson | Houston Chronicle)
Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle

Lupe Perez peeks in the home where a child was found dead. (Johnny...

Shadow Melendez, 6, holds a doll outside the apartment complex where a child was found dead at the Happy Home apartments. Melendez said she played with the children and the doll was a toy left behind by one of the three children that lived there. (Johnny Hanson | Houston Chronicle)
Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle

Shadow Melendez, 6, holds a doll outside the apartment complex...

A distraught Armand Comb is looking for answers on how and why his daughter died.
Photo: St. John Barned-Smith

A distraught Armand Comb is looking for answers on how and why his...

A wheel chair is shown at an apartment where where a girl, believed to be about 9 years old, was found dead and wrapped in blankets Monday evening.

Photo: St. John B. Smith, Houston Chronicle

A wheel chair is shown at an apartment where where a girl, believed...

Shadow Melendez, 6, can only wonder about the 9-year-old neighbor girl whose body was found Monday.

Photo: Family Photo

Shadow Melendez, 6, can only wonder about the 9-year-old neighbor...

Photo: Mike Glenn, Chronicle

A Houston Police Department spokesman says investigators have not been able to reach the girl's mother, but detectives spoke to the father, who doesn't live at the complex.
Photo: Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle

The body of a 9-year-old girl found in a southwest Houston apartment Monday was kept for six months in the drawer of a refrigerator after she died, a Child Protective Services investigator told a Houston judge Wednesday.

At a hearing to decide custody of Ayahna Comb's 5-year-old sister, the CPS investigator told Harris County Family Court Judge David Farr the dead girl, who her father said suffered from cerebral palsy, weighed 14 pounds and had been dead since January.

According to the investigator, Amber Keyes, the dead girl's mother, told authorities she had woken early in the morning in late January and found Ayahna not breathing. Keyes told investigators she tried to revive the child, but stopped around 6 a.m. to take her younger daughter to school.

She later wrapped Anahya's body in a blanket and placed it in the refrigerator. The investigator told the judge the younger daughter later discovered her sister's body there while looking for food.

Keyes has spoken with police, but has not yet been charged in connection with her daughter's death, officials said.

CPS officials said they could not release details of the case or their interview with the mother. HPD has released few details about the death and not confirmed that investigators interviewed the girl's mother.

According to officials with the Harris County District Attorney's Office no charges have been filed in the case and no arrest warrants have been issued.

The girl's father, Armand Comb, said Ayahna had cerebral palsy and couldn't communicate or do things for herself.

"She was a beautiful baby," he said. "At times, she could be so happy."

Comb said he had last seen Ayahna about two months ago, but had been planning to see her last week before utility troubles forced her mother to move temporarily, he said. He last said he last heard from the girl's mother a few days ago, when she dropped their other daughter at his mother's workplace.

Comb is expected to be at a court hearing Wednesday morning concerning who will care of the couple's younger daughter.

Before the hearing on Wednesday, Ayahna's grandmother Kathy Comb, said she was devastated by the tragedy. She last saw Ayahna's little sister when the girl's mother dropped her off at her workplace.

"I'm hoping I can take my grandbaby home with my family, that loves her," Comb said of her other granddaughter

She said Ayahna's mother "seemed to be a good caregiver ... People make mistakes."